Skelos: If there are real cuts, we'll vote "yes"

Republican Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos said he’s mended at least some fences with Gov. David Paterson, after today’s earlier dust-up in which the governor accused him, prospectively, of moving toward a potential government shut-down.

After meeting with Paterson later in the day, Skelos said he was told the Administration would examine and consider some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid savings the GOP has proposed, and possibly include it in next week’s budget extender bill.

That might mean some Republican senators would vote for the measure, even though they’ve been opposing previous extenders.

“If there are real cuts in there that we are proposing, I think there would be support,” said Skelos.

“If our recommendations are in there, then you’ll have a number of (yes) votes.”

What remains to be seen, however, is which recommendations make their way into Paterson’s latest extender bill. Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook stressed that “the governor made no commitment to putting anything in there.”